Mormons, Baptists, and Christians

[Dennis R. Preston]

Reminds me of "bilingual." I once told someone that a buddy of mine was
bilingual (in fact, he was more than that, but bilingual seems to be a kind
of default for multilingual often). The perrson I said this too came back
and told me (a little peeved) that he didn't speak Spanish and was,
therefore, not a bilingual.

dInIs (laying low during these religious wars)

>>But of course the discussion of the social differences in the meaning of the
>>term CHRISTIAN is a very interesting question in social dialectology.
>
>In 1964 I overheard the follow interchange between two middle-aged women in
>Minneapolis, both members of a Covenant (or Swedish Covenant) church:
>
>"Is she a Christian?"
>"No, she's a Methodist."
>"Well, at least she's not a Presbyterian."
>
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  Tom Kysilko        Practical Data Services
>  pds at visi.com       Saint Paul MN USA
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736